America, meet Charles Ramsey.
Ramsey was interviewed live at around 7:20 p.m. by John Kosich, a reporter for the Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS, after he and another man freed Amanda Berry. Berry went missing ten years ago and her discovery turned up two more missing women — Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus — along with a small child. While Ramsey is being hailed as a hero for his actions, it’s his use of words that’s gaining an equal amount of attention.
Kosich told TVspy, “My main concern is he had just dropped a s*^t bomb on me during the taped part so I was admittedly ready to quickly pull the mic when we were live.” Kosich added, “I’ve learned over the years when you find someone like [him] just let them go and try to stay out of the way.” You can read the transcript of the interview posted on the WEWS site after the jump.
Ramsey’s interview is making the rounds on social media. Muck Rack is compiling tweets from journalists who are, in turn, tweeting the interview.
>UPDATE: Hypervocal is scouring the web for the inevitable auto-tuned versions. Click here to watch what they’ve found so far.
Here’s the transcript of the interview as posted on the WEWS website:
John Kosich: Walk me through what happened this afternoon. You heard screaming?
Charles Ramsey: Heard screaming, I’m eating my McDonald’s, I come outside, and I see this girl going nuts, trying to get out of the house. So I go on the porch. I got on the porch and she said “Help me get out. I’ve been here a long time.” I figured it was a domestic violence dispute. So I open the door. And we can’t get in that way ‘cause of how the door is, it’s so much that a body can’t fit through; only your hand. So we kicked the bottom. And she comes out with a little girl and she says ‘Call 911. My name is Amanda Berry.
Kosich: Did you know who that was when that?
Ramsey: When she told me, it didn’t register. Until I got the call to 911 and then I’m like “I’m calling 911 for Amanda Berry. I thought that girl was dead.” You know what I mean? And she got on the phone and she said “Yeah, this is me.” And the detective… Det. Gregory Cook said “Charles, do you know who you rescued?”
Kosich: And when did you see Gina?
Ramsey: About… About five minutes after the police got here. See that girl Amanda, told the police “I ain’t the only one. There’s some more girls up in that house.” So they go up in there, 30, 40, deep. And when they came out, it was just astonishing. ‘Cause I thought they would come up with nothing. Like I said my neighbor, you got to have some pretty big testicles to pull this off, bro. Because we see this dude every day. I mean every day.
Kosich: How long have you live here?
Ramsey: I’ve been here a year. You see where I’m coming from? I barbeque with this dude. We eat ribs and whatnot and listen to salsa music. You see where I’m coming from?
Kosich: And you had no indications?
Ramsey: Bro, not a clue that that girl was in that house. Or anybody else was in there against their will. Because how he is. He just comes out to his backyard, plays with the dogs, tinkering with his cars and motorcycles, go back in the house. So he’s somebody you look, then look away. He’s not doing anything, but the average stuff. You see what I’m saying? There’s nothing exciting about him. Well, until today.
Kosich: What were the reactions on the girls’ faces? I can’t imagine to see the sunlight…
Ramsey: Bro, I knew something was wrong when a little, pretty white girl ran into a black man’s arms. Something is wrong here. Dead giveaway. Dead giveaway.